Yo Unregistered: Join us for the April 1 meeting when it will be Recovery night. We will have demonstrations working with winching, recovery and spotting. We will meet at 7:30 p.m. at Jefferson County Fairgrounds (not Stevinson Toyota but nearby).

There are probably a lot of subtle differences between the MX and Trail bikes that would go unnoticed by a newer rider. But in general the SX is tuned to be a track bike. Lightweight, close ratio transmission, 5 speed tranny (I think), smaller gas tank and nothing for street use. EXC is at the other end of the spectrum being an enduro bike. E-start with added weight items like battery and stator, wide ratio tranny, 6 speed, and bigger gas tank (although many/most EXC riders end up going with a bigger aftermarket tank). And with an EXC you get some of the streetable stuff like lights and a horn. For KTM, there are also XC and XCW varieties that fall somewhere in between the above two. I think Farnham's is an XCW.

If you want to be able to do both track and trail, I think getting an EXC or XCW is advisable so that you can relatively easily get a license plate for it. In Colorado you often have to ride pavement and county roads to string trails together, so having a plate eliminates the worry of connecting on a county road.

I feel like the 450 is the best balance of weight and power, and a great all around bike in the 4 stroke variety. But a 400, 450 or 525 is pretty close to the same bike, with minor size differences in the engine, so all of those would be good sizes. 600+ is too big IMHO unless you are doing more pure enduro and XC type riding. You could also consider a 300, which is a large two stroke. VERY powerful and fun, easily streetable, but you have to carry your oil with you on longer trips. And you have to do top end rebuilds fairly often. 4 strokes are more like your trucks - put gas in the tank and change the oil often. You'll need to adjust the valves periodically, but other than that you get 1000's of miles of low maintenance fun.

450 4 stroke something would be good. My 525 feels big (even though it has the same everything as a 450.. just bigger bore) in the tight woods. It's gonna be hard to find something that crosses over from MX to street/dirt roads at all. If you want to ride the OHV areas/trails only you can get away with not having a plate and rocking a MX bike. If you see any paved/fast dirt road travel in your future a MX bike will suck. On the other hand you can take a EXC with a headlight and electric start and a squishy enduro suspension out onto an MX track you're gonna have to be careful not to ball it up. Doable and fun but you won't be out there begin super fast. It's gonna feel like a bigger bike with the wrong suspension. I never ride track so I'm fine with my big heavy EXC but I do occasionally wish for a 450 instead of the 525. Sure the power is nice but the rotating mass of the engine being greater really gives the bike a piggy character.

I found that stiffening up the damping on my bike helped on the jumps at the Berthoud harescramble, though a couple jumps were still a little rough. If you're doing a real motocross track with high doubles and triples then you need a track bike. In general though I would agree to get an xcw and make it work at the track rather than try to make a track bike work in the woods-the gearing will kill you until you are good with clutching and taking stuff at high speed. The 300 is a cool bike but you can't go more than about 60 miles before you have to fill up. My buddy is always worrying about gas and I never give it a second thought.

Go to the ktm demo day when it comes around and try them all for yourself

I found that stiffening up the damping on my bike helped on the jumps at the Berthoud harescramble, though a couple jumps were still a little rough. If you're doing a real motocross track with high doubles and triples then you need a track bike. In general though I would agree to get an xcw and make it work at the track rather than try to make a track bike work in the woods. The 300 is a cool bike but you can't go more than about 60 miles before you have to top off. My buddy is always worrying about gas and I never give it a second thought.

Go to the ktm demo day when it comes around and try them all for yourself

great advice you guys, thanks. I'm a COMPLETE novice on the dirt - it's totally different than street riding. I was tooling around with the 8 year olds on there 50s. But I got much better and faster as the day went on. I'm so hooked. I was on a brand new 450 sx-f. I don't know anything about KTM bikes 'cept that I rode it and didn't dump it.

I foresee doing both trails and track (track for fun and comradery with the neighbors since they go pretty often - not so much to get into racing). I like the advice of not trying to make a track bike trail worthy, but the other way around. are there adjustments you can make "on the fly" to make a bike more trail or track worthy?

I'm on a YZ 450 with a recluse for trails, its worked great. Getting a complete suspension re-valve was key. My plan is to get a 300 XCW in the spring and I will valve the suspension again in it a bit firmer so I can ride both